How to find hidden cameras

Transcription

1 How to find hidden cameras Marc Roessler March 25, 2002 We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness 1984, George Orwell Abstract While it was easy to spot cameras twenty years ago due to their large size, this has become increasingly difficult during the last decade. Cameras have become much smaller and consume a fraction of the power they did ten years ago. Due to this, covert installation in nearly any imaginable place is possible. This paper will show methods frequently used for hiding cameras as well as methods to detect and locate covertly installed cameras. Document available at 1 Introduction During the last few years the number of surveillance cameras has grown out of bounds. Cameras have been installed in many public and semi-public places such as universities [1], streets, supermarkets, gas stations, parking garages, cinemas, bars, shops, busses, train stations and even discos. About 25 million CCTV 1 cameras are estimated to be in operation worldwide at the time of writing [2]. Some countries, notably Great Britain, are trying to fully cover every corner of public life with cameras. The Privacy International CCTV page [3] states that between 225 and 450 Million Dollars are spent on surveillance technology in Britain per year, involving an estimated cameras. These efforts result in a person driving through the city of London being filmed at least once every five minutes [4]. In the near future cameras may even be installed in all taxis, keeping an eye on the passengers [5]. In Houston, Texas, about 400 cabs have been equipped with such cameras [6]. 1 Closed Circuit Television 1

2 It may not be obvious right away why it could be of any importance to anyone to be able to locate hidden cameras. Some will reason that concealed cameras are more or less exotic and thus knowledge on how to find them is not necessary at all. Others even consider interest in how to locate hidden cameras to border the criminal. Both parties err, as shall be illustrated in the following. Contrary to common belief, hidden cameras are nowhere close to exotic. In 1996 David Fletcher, chief executive of the British Security Industry Association, estimated that employers were spending 12 million british pounds a year on covert camera equipment to monitor their staff [7, p.49]. A survey conducted by the American Management Association found that 33 percent of major U.S. firms say they tape employees overtly or covertly to counter theft, violence, or sabotage [8]. There have been several reports of staff being monitored in changing rooms without their consent [9]. Subminiature cameras were even discovered by the author of this paper during treatment at an oral surgeon s practice: the camera was plastered into the ceiling next to a ceiling light. Subminiature camera modules are available for as cheap as $ 25 and even ready to use wireless subminiature cameras can be legally bought. Ease of use and the dropping prices highly contributed to the popularity of subminiature cameras. In effect highly miniaturized cameras can be bought, installed and operated even by the average citizen lacking financial resources and technical expertise. Due to this it is not uncommon for subminiature cameras to turn up in places that are in fact neither public nor semi-public. There is a growing number of reports of covert cameras spying on unsuspecting persons in showers, bedrooms and changing rooms [11]. Knowing how to find covert cameras makes the voyeur s job harder. Often even legally installed and operated CCTV cameras are abused to peep on women for voyeuristic purposes. An analysis showed that 15 percent of all targeted CCTV surveillances on women initiated by the camera operator were for apparently voyeuristic reasons [7, p.129]. While there is concern that persons interested in finding hidden cameras may have criminal intentions, there are legitimate reasons for such interest as well. One important reason can be concern about privacy and personal freedom. Especially the growing use of face recogniton software [12, 13, 14, 15, 16] is being strongly criticized [17]. There is no way to distinguish cameras that are connected to face recognition systems from those that are not. This is why persons who consider face recognition to touch their personal freedom may choose to avoid surveillance cameras altogether. For instance, they may decide to avoid stores that excessively use video cameras and visit stores that do use significantly less or even none at all. This is not possible unless the presence of cameras is detected in the first place. In countries with lenient privacy protection laws video sequences captured by CCTV cameras may even be legally shown on TV [18], no matter how humilating this may be for the affected persons (for an example see [19]). Some people might argue that cameras are easy to find and this paper is therefore unnecessary. Be assured that searching for covert cameras is in no way trivial. A modern camera including transmitter and batteries will easily fit inside a box of cigarettes. The Institute of Microtechnology of the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) is de- 2

3 signing CMOS based subminiature cameras small enough to fit inside a pen [20]. The US company Given Imaging has even developed an Ingestible Imaging Capsule for medical applications that is small enough to be swallowed. The capsule contains a color camera, batteries and a transmitter [21]. Given the size of those cameras it should be clear by now why naive attempts to find cameras will not yield reliable results. 2 Types of cameras and lenses The focus of this paper will be on electronic cameras. Subminiature photographic cameras exist as well, but those are not as popular as electronic cameras. This is because electronic cameras are more flexible to install and operate. They facilitate real time analysis and can be installed in places that are not easily accessible, since there is no need for changing films. On the other hand photographic cameras provide images far superior in quality to those of standard subminiature video cameras. Ancient electronic cameras used camera tubes [22, 23] to convert the virtual image of the filmed object to an electronic signal. There are several tube designs [24] which all suffer from drawbacks such as high power consumption, sensitivity to mechanical stress, large size, short lifetime of the picture tube or high lag. Although there are still many tube based surveillance cameras in operation, they are of low importance concerning covert surveillance. Therefore this paper will focus on modern semiconductor based cameras. The camera does not need to be in the same room as the object under surveillance. It is possible to connect the primary lens to the camera by means of fibre optics [25], which are very similar to those used for medical applications. One advantage of this approach is that very little space is needed where the lens is to be installed. Another advantage is that detection of the lens can be made more difficult by using lens assemblies made of non conductive materials. Lenses prepared this way can not be detected with metal detectors. Still another advantage is that otherwise inaccessible rooms can be surveilled by feeding the fibre cable through sewage or air condition ducts. Fig. 1 shows some ways to obscure the camera s lens. Lenses obscured as nail, screw, or rivet head can be seen. Alternatively the lens may be masked as a shirt button (not shown). Fig. 1: Obscuring the camera s lens (Picture courtesy of 3

4 2.1 CCD cameras CCD 2 cameras are much smaller than tube based cameras and consume far less power, typically two to five Watts [26]. Particularly interesting for covert surveillance are subminiature CCD board cameras. Subminiature here means something like 32 mm square and 10 mm depth including lens and electronics. A board camera is a camera fully contained on a single circuit board including camera optics and all the electronics needed for generating the standardized video signal. CCD cameras are available as monochrome (i.e. black and white) and (more expensive) color versions. Several lenses are available such as tele ( zoom ), fisheye (wide viewing angle) and pinhole. Pinhole lenses are small diameter fisheye lenses of typically 2 mm or less in diameter. Pinhole lens cameras are particularly interesting for concealed surveillance applications because they can film through very small holes 3 and even through light-weaved cotton. Monochrome cameras usually are more light sensitive (0.5 to 2 Lux) than their color counterparts (about 3 Lux). A pinhole black and white CCD board camera can bee seen in Fig. 2 at the right side. Historically the major advantage of CCD cameras has been superior picture quality, but CMOS cameras (see below) are catching up rapidly. Compared to CMOS cameras, the CCD camera s disadvantages are large size, high power consumption and blooming. Blooming means leakage of bright pixels to neighbouring pixels. Bright parts of the picture such as light sources facing the camera will look smeared [27]. Another disadvantage is that CCD cameras can only be operated at temperatures below approximately 55 degrees celsius [28]. In addition they have rather low dynamic range compared to CMOS cameras. This means that CCD cameras will fail to record very brightly lit and very dark objects at the same time. Bright parts of the picture will be overexposed while darker areas will only show black [28]. Black and white CCD cameras are sensitive not only to human visible light but also to radiation in the near infrared (IR) spectrum. This can be demonstrated by having the camera look into an active IR remote control as used for most TVs and VCRs. IR remote conrols use light with a wavelength of approximately 900 nm. Light of this wavelength is invisible to humans but can be detected by black and white CCD cameras. The IR pulses that are emitted by the remote control can be seen as a flashing light on the video monitor. This offers some interesting possibilities. If an artificial source of IR radiation is supplied, monochrome CCD cameras can be used without any human visible light source. In effect such cameras can film in complete darkness. The mentioned IR emitter can comprise several IR-LEDs 4 grouped together, for example. Another possibility is to use a modified halogen floodlight with an IR pass filter applied to it. In some multiplex movie theatres there are CCD cameras and IR floodlights mounted at the ceiling above the screen, facing the audience. This enables personnel to take a look at what the audience is doing even in complete darkness. Color cameras are sensitve to IR radiation as well, but in practice IR sensitivity is too low to be of any use. 2 Charge Coupled Device 3 In many cases 1 mm is sufficent. 4 Light Emitting Diode 4

5 2.2 CMOS cameras Another type of camera which has shown up recently in the catalogues of electronics vendors is based on CMOS 5 technology. CMOS cameras were quite rare a few years ago but are now gaining ground with consumer products such as small handheld devices and webcams. They are available as monochrome and color version with several lenses such as pinhole and fisheye to choose from. Subminiature CMOS cameras usually do not come as board cameras but rather as modules packaged in small plastic cases, as can be seen in Fig. 2. They are about half the price of CCD cameras, less sensitive to electrical distortions, may be operated at temperatures ranging from -40 to +120 degrees celsius [28] and consume far less power (20 to 50 mw) than their CCD counterparts [29, 26]. They can be built much smaller than CCD cameras as major parts of the necessary circuitry can be built directly onto the substrate that carries the light sensors. Just like CCD cameras they are sensitive to IR radiation [23]. In addition they have a high dynamic range [28], i.e. very bright objects and very dark objects can be recorded satisfactorily at the same time. CMOS cameras have disadvantages as well. Because each pixel comes with a piece of circuitry of its own which consumes room and light, CMOS cameras are not as light sensitive as CCD cameras [30]. Another disadvantage is the lower picture quality, as the individual pixels are quite noisy. There are APS (Active Pixel Sensor) CMOS cameras available which attempt to cancel out the noise, but those are more expensive than the standard PPS (Passive Pixel Sensor) cameras [30]. CMOS cameras do have significant advantages over CCD cameras in regard to noise if large pixel arrays (megapixel arrays) are to be built [31]. CMOS imagers are likely to supersede CCD imagers within the next few years, especially on the consumer market. For more detailed comparisons of CMOS and CCD cameras see [32]. 5 Complementary Metal Oxide Silicon Fig. 2: CMOS (left) and CCD (right) pinhole camera 5

6 2.3 CID cameras A less frequently used type of camera mentioned for completeness is the CID 6 camera. In contrast to CMOS and CCD cameras the readout of the individual pixels is nondestructive. This makes noise detection and reduction easier [27]. The picture quality is said to be excellent and there is no blooming. CID cameras cover a broad spectrum from near infrared to ultraviolet. The pixels do not have to be read out instantly, thus integration of low light levels over a long time is possible [34, 33]. CID cameras are much more expensive than CCD or CMOS cameras. Up to now they see little use for surveillance applications. 3 Popular hiding places for cameras There is no single procedure that will reliably detect video surveillance. There are some valuable tools that can help, but their use must always be accompanied by careful visual examination of all potential camera hiding places. Some of the latter as well as frequently used methods for obscuring cameras will be presented below. An important advantage of visual inspection is that it can be conducted on the fly without any preplanning or tools involved, and of course it is cheapest. Sometimes it also helps to try to think like someone who wishes to install covert surveillance cameras: Where would you hide a camera? At which place would the camera be suspected least? The following section will present some particularly common or interesting methods and places for hiding cameras. It is by no means a complete list but should suffice to give an idea on what is possible. There are many applications which loosely base on variations or combinations of the presented techniques. 3.1 Distant and off-scene cameras Some methods to hide cameras solely rely on the way human perception works. A very simple way to hide a camera is to install it at a large distance from the space to be surveilled. This does not restrict the usefulness of the camera images in any way because tele lenses can be used to compensate for the distance. For this application there is no need for subminiature cameras, although these are even easier to hide. Standard surveillance cameras painted the right color are very hard to spot and usually have a C- Mount or CS-Mount 7 socket which is needed for attaching the necessary high quality tele lens. In theory it is very easy to find those cameras as they are not hidden in the original sense. In practice however finding them can prove to be difficult as the camera is hard 6 Charge Injection Device 7 Industry standards for mounting lenses 6

7 to spot within the large surrounding scenery. This is why there has been disagreement on whether such cameras are to be considered hidden (e.g. [36]). Examples include cameras installed on roofs, church bell towers or trees. Model planes (such as the MLB Bat [35]) that are equipped with miniature cameras and transmitters fall in the same category. Another scheme that is based on how human perception works exploits the fact that cameras usually are expected to be installed at face level or above. Examples for this are cameras installed at service counters below waistline or even at floor level. In most cases those cameras are noticed only by persons that suspect a hidden camera. 3.2 Two-way mirrors One of the most widely known places for hiding cameras is behind two-way mirrors. Those are frequently seen on TV shows such as Hidden Camera. Other names for two-way mirrors are one-way mirrors, partially silvered mirrors and half-silvered mirrors. Two-way mirrors differ from standard mirrors in two aspects. First they lack the intransparent coating which is applied to the back side of standard mirrors [37]. Second the reflective coating (silver or aluminium [38, 39]) is less dense than that of usual mirrors. The density of the reflective layer can be chosen as desired during manufacturing. The more dense the layer, the more light is reflected and the less light is passed through the mirror. Because not all of the light that hits the mirror is reflected, two-way mirrors appear to be darker than usual mirrors. However this should not be relied upon when looking for two-way mirrors. Because the density of the reflective coating can be chosen freely there is no definite value to distinguish two-way mirrors from regular ones. If the attacker wants to make sure the mirror is not suspected to be a two-way mirror he will choose more dense coatings. This will result in a visible loss of picture quality, of course. Tests with normal mirrors 8 showed that standard black and white CCD board cameras can film through those only in bright sunshine. Even then only very brighly lit objects can be seen. In general two-way mirrors can be seen through in both directions. Sometimes it is possible to take a look through two-way mirrors the wrong way by shielding the surrounding light from the mirror. Whether this works largely depends on the density of the reflective coating and the light levels at the viewer s side of the mirror. In most cases mirrors are easily spotted once an eye is kept open for them. Due to this it is not difficult to find cameras that are concealed behind mirrors. Of course this assumes that the person looking for cameras is able to closely inspect and unmount the mirrors. Unfortunately in many cases this is not possible, such as with wall mounted 8 Optical mirrors without backside coating that were salvaged from an old document scanner 7

8 mirrors on public ground. Real life examples of mirrors used to obscure cameras include cameras concealed within the rear view mirrors of cars [40] and cameras hidden behind bathroom mirrors [41]. 3.3 Ceiling and surroundings Another place where cameras can be hidden is on top of suspended ceilings. After a small hole is drilled through one of the ceiling tiles a subminiature pinhole camera can be hidden on top of it. Usually there is enough room on top to mount even standard camcorders. In many cases there is no need for drilling any holes because most ceiling tiles have holes of differing sizes for acoustic and design reasons. If the camera is installed next to a light source it is even more difficult to spot. There have already been numerous reports of hidden cameras that were installed on top of suspended ceilings [8]. Cameras may also film through the gratings of ventilation shafts. Alternatively miniature cameras can be hidden inside ceiling mounted smoke detectors 9. In fact many surveillance technology companys offer prepared smoke detectors [43]. As Steve Mann pointed out [42] the bad thing about those is that tampering with fire equipment (including smoke detectors) is against the law. This means that smoke detectors that are suspected to contain cameras may not be dismounted, disassembled or obstructed. According to a US patent, cameras even may be disguised as fire sprinkler heads [44]. A cylindrical assembly containing mirrors and lenses is mounted within the sprinkler head and the camera itself is mounted on top of the ceiling. This device gives a view of almost 360 degrees round the sprinkler head. Another quite elaborate method is to hide the camera within a prepared floodlight bulb [45, 46]. 3.4 Dome cameras This type of camera can often be seen at train stations and other public places. A dome camera basically comprises a camera mounted within a semi transparent dome. Usually those domes are suspended from or mounted to the ceiling (see Fig. 3). On a casual glance they are easily mistaken as light sources. They often blend in unobtrusively with their environment which is why some consider them to be hidden cameras. The dome and its interior is painted black, this makes it more difficult to discover the camera installed inside. The camera films through a transparent spot in the black cover of the dome. Some cameras are fixed within the dome while others can be remotely rotated and panned. So-called speed domes achieve rotation speeds of up to 400 degrees per second [29]. Some vendors even claim 600 degrees per second [47]. 9 This was shown quite nicely in the film Enemy of the State 8

9 Some dome cameras also have a remotely controlled tele lens. This type of camera will enable the operator to closely examine anything within a radius of a few ten meters. (a) Standard size dome camera (b) Miniature dome camera Fig. 3: Above two typical dome cameras that are often installed at train stations can be seen. The miniature dome camera shown in Fig. 3(b) is easily overlooked but by no means the smallest dome camera available. 3.5 Cameras behind LEDs LED control lights provide an interesting cover for cameras. Some german banks seem to use this technique for integrating surveillance cameras into their automatic teller machines (ATM). The following description is based solely on close examination. No ATMs were disassembled and no information was gained from internal sources. In Germany some ATMs have an oval plastic cover right above the CRT. Under the plastic cover three green LEDs can be seen. The left and the right LED are intransparent while the LED located in between is clear. The plastic cover and the LEDs serve no obvious purpose. When the three LEDs are examined closely it can be observed that the LEDs to the left and to the right are clearly three dimensional objects. The viewing angle changes when looking at them from different sides. In contrast the LED in between does not seem to be a three dimensional object. Independent of direction the LED is observed from it always seems to fully face the viewer. This is an indication for a fisheye lens applied to the top of the LED. The interior may look as shown in Fig. 4 (details may differ). At the top a fisheye lens can be seen. Under the lens there is a two-way mirror fixed 9

10 pinhole lens LED two-way mirror camera Fig. 4: Camera hidden behind an operating control light at an angle of 45 degrees. This mirror shields the camera from the view of the customer and reflects the light of the LED to the outside. The reflected light contributes to the covering effect but does not disturb the camera s view. This technique also can be used with any other clear LED controllight. It is advisable to examine power control lights of devices in security critical environments closely. Fig. 5 shows the headphones volume knob of a CD- Player. The tiny dot at the top of the knob is the butt of a transparent piece of plastic. It guides the light of an LED that is placed behind the assembly through the hollow axis of the knob to the front. It is possible to replace the transparent plastic with an optical system which will transfer Fig. 5: LED-Knob the picture to a camera located within the CD-Player. It even may be possible to keep the LED functional by using the technique described before. 3.6 IR pass filters Another means of obfuscation of camera lenses is the use of infrared (IR) pass filters. Such filters are often used to cover the IR-LEDs of remote controlled consumer appliances such as TVs or VCRs. The filters are intransparent to the human eye but let IR radiation pass almost unaffected. Because monochrome CCD and CMOS cameras are sensitive to IR radiation they can film through IR pass filters. As a result such filters provide a very effective cover for monochrome cameras. Obviously a source of IR radiation is needed for this to work. In practice this is not a problem. The light emitted by halogen lamps, incandescent lamps and even battery powered flashlights contains enough IR radiation for obtaining pictures of acceptable quality. Matters are more difficult with cold light sources such as fluorescent tubes. In this case additional IR emitters need to be installed. 10

11 Experiments showed that many semi transparent display covers of CD-Players and VCRs show characteristics very similar to those of IR pass filters. Most display covers let IR radiation pass almost unaffected but prevent the user from examining the internal structure of the display. Cameras installed behind the display covers of household applicances are very difficult to spot. IR pass filters can also be integrated into wall plates [43]. Similar installations that contain IR pass filters ( black glass [48]) can often be seen in public restrooms. They house motion sensors that activate water taps, automatic flushing mechanisms or hand driers. Of course nothing prevents anyone from using them as a discrete cover for subminiature cameras. 3.7 Liquid Crystal Displays Many battery powered digital alarm clocks contain reflective LC Displays (twisted nematic type) [49, 50]. Those LC displays make an almost perfect cover for pinhole cameras. The following experiment was made with a cheap digital table clock which had an LC display measuring about 5 cm by 3 cm. The diffusing polarizer foil at the back side of the display was replaced by transparent polarizer foil (see Fig. 6). A hole about two millimeters in diameter was punched through the reflective foil right where one of the digits would be displayed later on. In order to get the pinhole lens close enough to the LC display the circuit board had to be placed outside of the clock. By redesigning the circuit board it would have been possible to make camera and board fit inside the original casing. top polar. foil (front) (back) top cover glass liquid crystal seal bottom cover glass bottom polar. foil reflector with hole for camera Fig. 6: Modified LC display for use with monochrome CCD or CMOS camera Active segments of the display cover the hole in the reflective foil surprisingly well. They make the image recorded by the camera fade slightly but this is negligible and does not reduce usefulness in any way. The IR radiation emitted by most light sources passes the dark segments almost unaffected. Unless the clock is examined closely or at a steep viewing angle the hole is not visible at all. Of course this assumes that an 11

12 active segment is displayed on top of the hole all the time. This prerequisite can be met by placing the hole beneath one of the dots of the column that separates hours from minutes, for example. 3.8 Outdoor surveillance Some ways of hiding surveillance cameras outdoors have already been mentioned in section 3.1. Several more will be presented in this section. There is a US patent that describes how to integrate surveillance cameras into street lamps [51]. The authors of the patent suggest to replace the photo detector on top of the lamp with a small tube that contains a small periscope. In combination with servos this will offer a 360 degree view. The camera can be remotely controlled by means of DTMF audio signals transmitted to the unit via phone lines or other communication channels. As an alternative the camera may be installed inside the lamp housing. In this case it would look downwards through the protective glass cover. The authors further suggest to replace the standard bulb usually used for street lamps with a halogen quartz tube. This may be necessary to free some room for the camera. Because the emitted spectrum of halogen quartz tubes radically differs from that of the standard street lamps 10 color filters must be used, otherwise modified street lamps would be very easy to distinguish from unmodified ones. Another US patent describes how to integrate covert cameras into outdoor lighting fixtures [52]. Among the outdoor installations that can house surveillance cameras are power distribution boxes [53] and power transformers ( pole pigs ). The pole mounted transformers are often seen in the United States and sometimes in Europe as well. For surveillance applications usually dummy transformers are installed which contain only the camera and the necessary communication circuitry. The viewing window of the camera is claimed to be noticeable by taking a close look [51] but of course this should not be relied upon. Hidden cameras may even be installed in the woods. Woods Watch has developed several camouflaged surveillance systems for outdoor use. Cameras hidden within tree stumps, bird houses and rocks are available [54]. The cameras are Hi-8 camcorders with nightshot function and can be activated by passive infrared (PIR) motion detectors and seismic sensors. 3.9 Taking over pre-installed cameras Another possibility which is rarely thought of is the takeover of cameras owned or installed by the victim. This includes cameras that are integrated by default into devices owned by the victim. If the attacker succeeds in gaining control over those cameras, the victim can be spied upon unnoticed. 10 Usually fluorescent light tubes, sodium vapor lamps or mercury vapor lamps are used. 12

13 Though the victim is well aware of the camera she does not consider that it might be used for purposes other than intended by her. In effect cameras that have been taken over are very similar to hidden cameras. Taking over victim owned cameras exploits a common misconception, namely the confusion of the idea of ownership with the idea of control. Owning a device neither makes that device trusted nor does it automatically grant full control over the device. A good example for cameras that can be taken over are computer controlled miniature cameras, commonly called webcams. Those have become very popular recently and are available for prices as low as $ 45. Control over the computer the camera is attached to results in control over the camera itself. Given the fact that trojan based takeovers are trivial with many popular home user operating systems, this is a serious risk. Some trojans even support grabbing images from attached webcams by default [55]. This clearly shows that computer security does matter in many cases a breakin will not only affect the machine itself but also its environment. It is strongly suggested not to attach any microphones or cameras to networked computers permanently. This applys just as well to toys such as the Lego Mindstorms 11 Vision Command set which is essentially a small webcam with added functionality. Takeover candidates include cameras integrated into hand-helds (PDAs), notebooks (Fig. 7) and cellular phones. The next generation of cellular phones and notebooks will come with builtin cameras by default. A major part of the population will carry at least one device with them that has a builtin camera. Camera takeover attacks can be made highly effective by installing modified firmware. On networked devices such as cellular phones this may be accomplished by means of remote firmware updates. Without doubt this will be exploited by various intelligence services. Even in the automobile sector there are numerous possibilities for camera takeovers. Some drivers of large vehicles install small board cameras at the rear of the vehicle for easier parking. A paper submitted to the 1998 IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Vehicles even suggests installing CMOS fish eye lens cameras inside cars for making gesture recognition and control of airbags and other devices possible [56]. The authors suggest to mount the camera in front of the rear-view mirror, showing the front part of the car and parts of the rear seats. The authors further suggest to install a second camera in the area of the rear seats for detecting intruders in that area. Another research group developed Facelab, an eye-tracking system. The system includes a miniature camera that is installed at the car dashboard and faces the driver. The system will sound an alarm if the driver falls asleep [57, 58]. During the last decade there has been a strong tendency towards video cameras in sensors technology. In the near future PIR (Passive Infrared) motion sensors may be replaced by intelligent video cameras. Video cameras allow a much more fine grained analysis than PIR sensors do [28]. Some prototype computer displays that can display three dimensional objects use video cameras to detect the position of the viewer. This is necessary in order to provide a stable three dimensional display regardless of the angle the screen is viewed at. Other applications such as gesture recognition require 11 All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The absence of a trademark sign does not necessarily indicate that the according word or phrase is not a registered trademark. 13

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